Monday, 3 January 2011

Excellent attendance and a silver green man

Yesterday morning we had a club dig near Ashurst on pasture on a cold, dry day.

It warmed up later

Six of us turned out and we quickly determined that the fields were pretty noiseless. Rifle cartridges and mortars showed up and Gill found a nice buckle.I found two interesting items. The first was a school attendance medal.

before cleaning

after cleaning

I found this identical medal on ebay showing the pin used to attach the medal

note: I revised this post on Jan 4 after using ultrasound and brushing to clean the medal.On one side is a shield containing six Martlets with 'WEST SUSSEX EDUCATION COMMITTEE’ round the edge, on the other side the words ‘AWARDED FOR ONE YEARS EXCELLENT ATTENDANCE AT SCHOOL’ Martlets were stylised birds without feet, based on the house martin. The Sussex Shield before 1889 consisted of six martlets. After that date the two administrative counties East and West Sussex were created each with its own coat of arms. So the medal was produced after 1889.